BLOOD AND IRON

For two months before the German break occurred, yet while it was shown to be imminent, our nation contented itself with the thought that we might wage war, should we be compelled by undesired necessity, with money and munitions, the money to be lent at a fair rate of interest, the munitions to be manufactured at a fair profit. For a month now we have been at war, and our nation has come to realize that some bravery is to be demanded of it, some sacrifice, some fortitude of spirit. Not by iron alone, but by blood and iron, will we win victory. That blood must be of our best.

It was a shock to most men to learn coldly that Germany's submarine war is a far greater peril than we had supposed, that the famed advance against the western front is recovering slowly by inches what Germany took rapidly by yards, that many good men are dying in order that the red fields of France may be once more free. We are learning that the German morale is not yet broken, that some millions of the finest war-trained troops, armed with all that modern science may give to the soldier, are holding fiercely that French and Belgian land which they took, and with all their power mean to keep.

The war is not over. There is much brave fighting to be done before the German will be driven over the Rhine. The Wotan line is yet unbent by the hammer of Thor.

If we as a nation yet dream that our war is a war of gold, and out battles to be fought here at home, we are worse than the blind who cannot see, for we will not see. The strength of our armies is needed now, has been needed for months, and will be needed more terribly as weeks go by, to drive back in hard battles the German arms.

The knowledge that we are called upon to fight as a nation in arms, rather than as an honest broker for braver peoples, may work some havoc to our calm peace, and our pride in our fat prosperity. But we will gather from that knowledge a new consciousness of our former strength. We will awaken to the call for sacrifice, and give our very utmost for that cause which we have undertaken.

If a nation feels it must give something, it may well give nothing. If it knows it must give everything, it will give its all. We must give our all.